This is Eden

This is Eden
Written and performed by Emily Goddard. Directed by Susie Dee. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 27 April – 7 May 2017.

In discussing her collaboration with Goddard, Dee explains that, “From the outset, neither of us wanted to create a ‘bonnet drama’.” This beautifully and thoughtfully presented play is in no danger of appearing superficial in its depiction of the dark side of Australia’s colonial past.

The story is based on a chance discovery of Goddard’s previously unknown convict ancestor and the hardships she endured during her seven-year sentence in the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart Town during the 1830s-1840s.

Goddard’s research uncovered a fighting spirit in the story of such women, whose irreverence included using “humour to rebel, to expose the hypocrisy of their captors and to endure a system designed to break them…They created performances strikingly similar to the centuries old clowning method of Bouffon, in which outcasts ridicule their oppressors.” The adaptation of these techniques in the text is a stroke of genius.

This extremely demanding performance evokes a variety of both contemporary and historical personas who give a penetrative and poignant account of the existence of these women. Goddard gives excellent space and scope for humour, and this also creates a powerful contrast to the horrors that she exposes.

Goddard is nothing less than extraordinary; she sustains an incredibly emotionally draining exercise for the entire duration of the play, while still being able to actively engage and interact with her audience.

Patricia Di Risio

photographer: Sarah Walker

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